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Second lockdown survey brings postive news
S&PANews A round-up of the latest developments in the industry
SECOND LOCKDOWN SURVEY BRINGS POSITIVE NEWS
By DeeDee Doke
Gym and leisure centre users overwhelmingly ( 98%) report they plan to return to the facilities immediately or in the new year following the second national lockdown in November, according to the results of a post-Lockdown 2 survey to gauge consumer confi dence in gyms and leisure centres.
However, the impact of the second lockdown on activity levels was evident in the survey results, as 69% of respondents said they were less active since its start at the beginning of November. Roughly a quarter ( 26.5%) said they were about as active as since the start. Nearly 22% said they were more active.
The ‘National Post Lockdown 2 Recovery Survey’, sponsored by Active IQ, followed the lines of Leisure-net’s initial survey last April. The latest aimed to judge consumer confidence following a second spell of closure for UK health clubs and leisure centres.
Th e survey questioned 33,544 customers across 771 facilities in the UK, and the results can be crossreferenced by age, gender, operator type and region.
The initial survey results were “widely used to inform decision making, lobby local and central government, and shape re-opening guidance by organisations such as Sport England, ukactive, Community Leisure UK and CIMSPA”, said Dave Monkhouse, Leisure-net director.
“Operators up and down the country also used the results to inform their decisions, maximise the impact of re-opening and reframe post-Covid activity.”
The latest survey, Monkhouse said, “provides further evidence to underpin our sector’s campaign for recognition as an essential service, as well as supporting operators with their decisions on when and how to reopen their facilities”.
“The new consumer confidence scores from this second survey will be used… to inform the modelling of new projections for the sector.”
During the second lockdown, walking was the most favoured physical activity by 48% of respondents, online/ YouTube classes by 12%, jogging/running by 10%, cycling by 10% and indoor activities by themselves by 9%.
Asked if they had purchased any home exercise equipment in the last eight months, 69% said yes with 26% an exercise mat, 21% online training sessions, 13% a cardio machine and 9% a bicycle.
The sector earned a Confidence Indicator Score (CIS) of 50%, calculated by the percentage of respondents who said they were extremely confident about returning to their gyms 62%) minus the percentage of ‘Not at all confident’ respondents 12%).
Respondents were asked further how frequently they would use their centre/club when it reopened, to which 71% said they would use it about the same amount. Even more positively speaking, 19% said they would use theirs more. Only 3% said they would not use it at all, 7% reporting they would use it less.
The usage figures above reflect improvements overall from the results of the survey taken earlier this year, when 66% said they would use their club about the same as before, with 8.3% saying they would use their club less and 4% reporting that they would not use it at all.
The attractiveness of providing online classes had dropped from the survey earlier in the year to the latest. Asked if they would be more likely to go back to using their gym or leisure centre if it offered online classes as part of their membership offer, 15% said ‘Yes definitely’ in the latest survey, compared to 18.9% who gave that response in the earlier questionnaire.
saying ‘Perhaps/maybe’ dropped by 2.3% between June and November, and those saying ‘Definitely not’ increased by nearly 7% during the same time period.
